Editing Wheeling, West Virginia (section)

==History==
{{see also|Timeline of Wheeling, West Virginia}}

===Arrival of early Europeans===
The origins of the name "Wheeling" are disputed. One of the more credible explanations is that the word comes from the [[Lenni-Lenape]] phrase ''wih link'' or ''wee lunk'', which meant "place of the head" or "place of the skull." This name supposedly referred to a white settler who was scalped and decapitated. His severed head was displayed at the confluence of [[Wheeling Creek (West Virginia)|Wheeling Creek]] and the [[Ohio River]].<ref>Jack M. Weatherford (1991), ''Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America'', p. 263, {{ISBN|0-449-90713-9}}</ref> Earlier sources say that the head was that of a Native American prisoner, not a settler.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Heckewelder |first1=John |last2=Du Ponceau |first2=Peter S. |title=Names Which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, Who Once Inhabited This Country, Had Given to Rivers, Streams, Places, &c. &c. within the Now States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia: And Also Names of Chieftains and Distinguished Men of That Nation; With the Significations of Those Names, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Those Men. By the Late Rev. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Communicated to the American Philosophical Society April 5, 1822, and Now Published by Their Order; Revised and Prepared for the Press by Peter S. Du Ponceau |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |date=1834 |volume=4 |page=371 |doi=10.2307/1004837 |jstor=1004837 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1004837 |access-date=March 29, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erret |first1=Russell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=at46AQAAIAAJ |title=Indian Geographical Names |journal=The National Magazine; A Monthly Journal of American History |date=1885 |volume=2 |page=243 |access-date=March 29, 2023}}</ref> Native Americans had inhabited the area for thousands of years. In the 17th century, the Iroquois from present-day New York state [[Beaver Wars|conquered the upper Ohio Valley]], pushing out other tribes and maintaining the area as their hunting ground.

Originally explored by the French, Wheeling still has a lead plate remnant that the explorer [[Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville|Céloron de Blainville]] buried in 1749 at the mouth of Wheeling Creek to mark his claim. Later, [[Christopher Gist]] and [[George Washington]] surveyed the land, in 1751 and 1770, respectively.<ref name="The West Virginia Encyclopedia">{{cite book |editor=Sullivan, Ken| title=The West Virginia Encyclopedia |orig-year=2006 |year= 2006|publisher= West Virginia Humanities Council |isbn= 0-9778498-0-5 }}</ref>

===Establishment of European settlement===
During the fall of 1769, [[Ebenezer Zane]] explored the Wheeling area and established claim to the land via "[[Cabin rights|tomahawk rights]]", the practice of [[girdling]] a few trees at a prominent site and marking the bark with the initials or name of the person making the claim. He returned the following spring with his wife Elizabeth and his younger brothers, Jonathan and Silas; they established the first permanent European settlement in the Wheeling area, naming it Zanesburg. Other families joined the settlement, including the Shepherds (see [[Shepherd Hall (Monument Place)|Monument Place]]), the Wetzels, and the McCollochs (see [[McColloch's Leap]]).

[[File:View of Wheeling (West Virginia). From Chapline Hill (NYPL Hades-118826-54977).tif|thumb|[[Panoramic map]] of Wheeling from Chapline Hill in 1854 with list of sites]]

In 1787, the United States gave Virginia this portion of lands west of the Appalachians, and some to Pennsylvania at its western edge, to settle their claims. By the Northwest Ordinance that year, it established the [[Northwest Territory]] to cover other lands north of the Ohio River and west to the [[Mississippi River]]. Settlers began to move into new areas along the Ohio.

In 1793, Ebenezer Zane divided the town into lots, and Wheeling was officially established as a town in 1795 by legislative enactment. The town was incorporated on January 16, 1805. On March 11, 1836, the town of Wheeling was incorporated into the city of Wheeling.

By an act of the [[Virginia General Assembly]] on December 27, 1797, Wheeling was named the county seat of [[Ohio County, West Virginia|Ohio County]].<ref name="History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and Representative Citizens">{{cite book |editor=Cranmer, Hon. Gibson Lamb.| title=History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and Representative Citizens|orig-year=1902 |year= 1902|publisher= Biographical Publishing Company|location= Chicago}}</ref>

===Fort Henry===
Originally dubbed ''Fort Fincastle'' in 1774, the fort was later renamed [[Fort Henry (West Virginia)|Fort Henry]] in honor of Virginia's American governor, [[Patrick Henry]]. In 1777, Native Americans of the [[Shawnee]], [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]], and [[Mingo]] tribes joined to attack pioneer settlements along the upper [[Ohio River]], which were illegal according to the Crown's [[Proclamation of 1763]]. They hoped an alliance with the British would drive the colonial settlers out of their territory.

Local men defended the fort, later joined by recruits from Fort Shepherd (in Elm Grove) and Fort Holliday. The native force burned the surrounding cabins and destroyed livestock.

[[File:McColloch's Leap.jpg|thumb|"McColloch's Leap"]]

During the first attack of the year, Major Samuel McColloch led a small force of men from Fort Vanmetre along [[Short Creek, West Virginia|Short Creek]] to assist the besieged Fort Henry. Separated from his men, McColloch was chased by attacking natives. Upon his horse, McColloch charged up Wheeling Hill and made what is known as [[McColloch's Leap]] {{convert|300|ft|m}} down its eastern side.

In 1782, a native army along with British soldiers attempted to take Fort Henry. During this siege, Fort Henry's supply of ammunition was exhausted. The defenders decided to dispatch a man to secure more ammunition from the Zane homestead. [[Betty Zane]] volunteered for the dangerous task. During her departing run, she was heckled by both native and British soldiers. After reaching the Zane homestead, she gathered a tablecloth and filled it with gunpowder. During her return, she was fired upon but was uninjured. As a result of her heroism, Fort Henry remained in American control.<ref name="History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and Representative Citizens" />

===Role as transportation hub===
[[File:Wheeling Suspension Bridge.jpg|thumb|Wheeling Suspension Bridge]]

The [[National Road]] arrived in Wheeling in 1818, linking the Ohio River to the Potomac River, and allowing goods from the Ohio Valley to flow through Wheeling and on to points east. As the endpoint of the National Road, Wheeling became a gateway to early westward expansion. In 1849 the [[Wheeling Suspension Bridge]] crossed the Ohio River and allowed the city to expand onto [[Wheeling Island]]. Lessons learned in constructing the bridge were used in the construction of the [[Brooklyn Bridge]]. Rail transportation reached Wheeling in 1853 when the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] connected Wheeling to Pennsylvania, Maryland, and markets in the Northeast. A new bridge connected the city to [[Bellaire, Ohio]], just across the river, and to western areas of the U.S.

===Anti-slavery sentiment===
Much of the area had been settled by [[yeoman]] farmers, few of whom owned slaves. With the railroad, a larger industrial or mercantile middle class developed that depended on free labor; it felt either disinterest or hostility to slavery. The ''Wheeling Intelligencer'' newspaper expressed the area's anti-secession sentiment as tensions rose over slavery and national issues. The city became part of the movement of western areas to secede from Virginia after the beginning of the Civil War, hosting the [[Wheeling Convention]]<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0knsLn7krcC&pg=PP15 |title=Transforming the Appalachian Countryside: Railroads, Deforestation, and ... |author=Ronald L. Lewis |year=1998 |page=15 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=9780807847060 |access-date=July 14, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105053239/https://books.google.com/books?id=-0knsLn7krcC&pg=PP15 |archive-date=January 5, 2018 }}</ref> of 1861. It served as the provisional capital of the [[Restored Government of Virginia]] from 1861 to 1863, and became the first capital of West Virginia after the state seceded from Virginia and was admitted to the Union in its own right in 1863. From the acceptance of the new state of West Virginia into the union until the Restored Government of Virginia's move to [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]] in August of the same year, Wheeling was the state capital of both West Virginia and Virginia.

The growing German population, which included immigrants after the [[Revolutions of 1848|1848 Revolutions]], was firmly anti-slavery. The Germans of Wheeling organized the "First West Virginia Artillery" to oppose the Confederacy and played a role in the initial movement to separate from Virginia.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PVzNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA120 |title=History of the German Element in Virginia |author=Herrmann Schuricht |year=1900 |page=120 |access-date=July 14, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204075219/https://books.google.com/books?id=PVzNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA120 |archive-date=December 4, 2016 }}</ref> The Germans' culture influenced the city, such as their "German Singing Societies", the first of which began in 1855.<ref>Edward C. Wolf, "Wheeling's German Singing Societies", ''West Virginia History'', 1980-1981 42(1-2): 1-56</ref>

===Post-Civil War growth===
[[File:Wheeling West Virginia 1920 Automobile Blue Book.jpg|thumb|Map of Wheeling in 1920]]
Although Wheeling lost its position as state capital in 1865, it continued to grow. In the late nineteenth century, Wheeling was the new state's prime industrial center. One early nickname (until an 1885 strike) was "Nail City", reflecting the iron manufacture in several mills, which dated from the 1840s. Mills transformed pig iron into sheets that could be cut, and some mills also produced boiler plates, stoves, barrel rings, and/or ornamental ironwork.<ref>Doug Fetherling, Wheeling: An Illustrated History Windsor Publications Inc. 1981) pp. 53-57</ref> Noted businesses of the era included the [[Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company]] (owned by state senator [[Jesse A. Bloch]], who would in 1913 introduce legislation that became the state's Workmen's Compensation Act), and later steel concerns after development of the [[Bessemer process]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ts4gcxT0YeAC&pg=PR9 |title=West Virginia: A History |author1=Otis K. Rice |author2=Stephen W. Brown |date=January 1993 |page=9 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=0813118549 |access-date=July 14, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105053239/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ts4gcxT0YeAC&pg=PR9 |archive-date=January 5, 2018 }}</ref> Wheeling Steel Corporation was created in 1920 and grew after a 1927 strike caused J.P. Morgan and other investors to sell National Tube Company, which had been created in 1899, six years after local owners had consolidated five plants in the area as Wheeling Steel & Iron Company.<ref>Fetherling p. 57</ref>

In 1866, Lincoln School opened in Wheeling to serve African American students.<ref name=linc/> Lincoln High School was taught by Laura Grayson-Morison.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/wheeling-history/4080|title = Lincoln School: Historical Sketch > Research &#124; Ohio County Public Library &#124; Ohio County Public Library &#124; Wheeling West Virginia &#124; Ohio County WV &#124; Wheeling WV History &#124;}}</ref> A new building for Lincoln High School opened in the early 1940s;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theclio.com/entry/27123|title = Lincoln High School}}</ref> the school closed with desegregation in 1954.<ref name=linc>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/wheeling-history/lincoln-school-wheeling-wv-1943/4070|title=Lincoln School > Research &#124; Ohio County Public Library &#124; Ohio County Public Library &#124; Wheeling West Virginia &#124; Ohio County WV &#124; Wheeling WV History &#124;}}</ref>

Wheeling had considerable associations with the American labor movement. In 1904 it became the first city in the country to refuse a proposed [[Andrew Carnegie]] gift of a free library, because of the industrialist's labor record, especially the notorious [[Homestead Strike]] of 1892. By contrast, cigar tycoon [[Augustus Pollack]] (despite once rousing controversy by a plan to use convict labor) left many bequests to the labor movement, which erected a memorial statue. The city's earliest union was the United Nailers (1860, which later merged into the [[Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers]]), followed by the cigar makers in 1862. The 1877 railroad strike at [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]], reached Wheeling and spread nationwide. In 1897, [[Eugene Debs]], [[Mary Harris Jones|Mother Jones]], and [[Samuel Gompers]] were among the speakers at a national labor convention in Wheeling to discuss a nationwide coal strike.<ref>Fetherling pp. 56, 58-59</ref>

With industry, Wheeling reached its peak of population in 1930. As the city grew, prosperous Wheeling residents built fine houses, especially on [[Wheeling Island]], but slums also expanded.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lp5Li57vz3oC&pg=PR9 |title=West Virginia: A History |author=John Alexander Williams |page=9 |date=August 17, 1984 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393301823 |access-date=July 14, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105053239/https://books.google.com/books?id=lp5Li57vz3oC&pg=PR9 |archive-date=January 5, 2018 }}</ref> As a result of that growth, an ordinance was passed regulating personal cesspools, including a ban on pipe communications with other homes and businesses unless offensive smells were properly trapped.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3DBGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA389 "Laws and Ordinances for the Government of the City of Wheeling, West Virginia"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216212856/https://books.google.com/books?id=3DBGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA389&dq |date=February 16, 2017 }}, Wheeling (W. Va.). Intelligencer Publishing Company, 1901. p. 389. Retrieved February 10, 2017</ref>

=== Modern decline and revitalization efforts ===
The [[Great Depression]], and later changes and restructuring in heavy industry following World War II, led to a loss of working-class jobs and population. Capitalizing on its rich architectural heritage, Wheeling has worked to revive its Main Street with the Downtown Wheeling Streetscape project.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Justice |first1=Jim |title=Gov. Justice announces award of Wheeling Streetscape project |url=https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2022/Pages/Governor-Justice-announces-award-of-Wheeling-Streetscape-project.aspx |website=Office of the Governor |publisher=State of West Virginia |access-date=August 14, 2023}}</ref> Additionally, the city has been redeveloping the historic 1400 Market Street, just one block east of Main Street.<ref>{{cite web |title=1400 Market Block Wheeling, WV |url=https://www.tippingpointdev.com/projects-1/1400-market-block-wheeling%2C-wv |website=Tipping Point Real Estate Development |publisher=Tipping Point |access-date=August 14, 2023}}</ref>